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Human rights defenders in China launched a hunger strike relay on February 4, according to Chinese dissident Web sites and international news media reports. On February 4, the Epoch Times set up an online forum (in Chinese) for discussion of the topic and posted a "Proposal by Gao Zhisheng and Others to Organize a Rights Defender Hunger Strike Support Group." The proposal condemned the increasingly oppressive environment in which Chinese citizens have attempted to defend their rights, and established the hunger strike relay in support of "laborers, farmers, intellectuals, free [religious] believers, as well as Party, government, military, police, and members of all communities and all groups (including petitioners and social activists in all places) who are illegally persecuted or violently beaten." Organizers launched a Web site (www.jueshi.org) through which volunteers could register to participate. Beginning February 15, they coordinated simultaneous hunger strikes in at least 10 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, according to a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report (in Chinese) on the same day. As of February 16, over 370 individuals (including overseas supporters) had joined the hunger strike relay, according to an Agence France-Presse article (via Yahoo News) published the same day.

Human rights defenders in China launched a hunger strike relay on February 4, according to Chinese dissident Web sites and international news media reports. On February 4, the Epoch Times set up an online forum (in Chinese) for discussion of the topic and posted a "Proposal by Gao Zhisheng and Others to Organize a Rights Defender Hunger Strike Support Group." The proposal condemned the increasingly oppressive environment in which Chinese citizens have attempted to defend their rights, and established the hunger strike relay in support of "laborers, farmers, intellectuals, free [religious] believers, as well as Party, government, military, police, and members of all communities and all groups (including petitioners and social activists in all places) who are illegally persecuted or violently beaten." Organizers launched a Web site (www.jueshi.org) through which volunteers could register to participate. Beginning February 15, they coordinated simultaneous hunger strikes in at least 10 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, according to a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report (in Chinese) on the same day. As of February 16, over 370 individuals (including overseas supporters) had joined the hunger strike relay, according to an Agence France-Presse article (via Yahoo News) published the same day.

In response to the nationwide efforts, government officials reportedly have cracked down on organizers and participants. Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng, one of the first to participate on February 4, told RFA that public security officers placed 75 percent of the participants in Beijing under house arrest. Officials in other parts of China are said to have placed many others under house arrest or taken them into custody for interrogation. In a February 16 essay (posted by the Epoch Times, in Chinese), Gao reported that activists Hu Jia, Qi Zhiyong, and three associates of Gao's law firm, which the Beijing Justice Bureau shut down in November 2005, were among the first reported missing and thought to be in government custody. In a February 19 statement (posted by the Epoch Times), Gao announced that these government actions required a change in the hunger strike strategy. He said the time had come to scale down the level of coordination among hunger strike participants and ensure that their identities could remain confidential.

September 13, 2005. Guangzhou officials take Guo Feixiong into custody for his involvement in the Taishi village recall campaign.

September 28, 2005. The operators of the Yannan Forum, an electronic bulletin board service, shut down the Web site one week after they ordered forum administrators to "clean up" their forums and delete all posts related to events in Taishi village.

October 4, 2005. Guangzhou officials formally arrest Guo for "gathering people to disturb public order," a crime under Article 290 of China's Criminal Law.

October 5, 2005. Authorities shut down the Web site of Professor Ai Xiaoming of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, after she posted a description of a September 26 incident in which unidentified assailants "smashed" a taxi that carried her and Guangzhou lawyers Tang Jingling and Guo Yan home from a visit to Taishi village. At the time, these assailants pursued and beat Guo Yan, who left the taxi to seek help.

October 9, 2005. Unidentified assailants beat Lu Banglie, a local people's congress deputy, as he escorts a British journalist attempting to report on events in Taishi village.

January 29, 2006. Plainclothes security officers, reportedly from the Ministry of State Security and National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, move into the ground-floor unit of Guo's apartment building and begin 24-hour surveillance of his activities.

February 1, 2006. Guo posts an essay (in Chinese) on the Boxun Web site, recounting his visit and revealing that local officials have also visited villagers. Officials told villagers that Guo and his associates wished to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party and that the villagers should distance themselves from the activists.

February 3, 2006. An altercation between Guo and plainclothes security officers takes place after they attempt to photograph his wife and two children. Public security officials take Guo to the Linhe police dispatch station in Guangzhou, where officials interrogate him for about 12 hours. While Guo is in custody, Gao Zhisheng posts an essay (in Chinese) through the Boxun Web site, calling on supporters to launch a hunger strike, and express their protests through strictly non-violent means, as soon as Guo suffers any physical harm.

February 4, 2006. Unidentified assailants beat Guo outside the doors of the Linhe station, as he leaves around 12:30 am after 12 hours of interrogation. Gao immediately condemns the beating and goes on hunger strike for 48 hours beginning 6 am that morning.